It's a matter of connectivity

As we grow older, our well-being can hinge on social links

November 14, 2006|By Marilyn Kennedy Melia, Special to the Tribune

Anyone who has experienced a jittery stomach or tension headache needs no further proof of a mind-body connection. It's not just a mind-body link, however, but connections with other people and even a supreme being that have an impact on mental and physical well-being, University of Chicago researchers are discovering.

A representative sample of some 200 randomly recruited Chicago area adults, now between the ages of 55 and 72, have agreed to let the researchers probe their psyche, social life and even their paychecks to analyze the factors behind healthy and happy aging.

The Chicago Health, Aging and Social Relations Study is an ambitious project spanning several years and paid for by the National Institute on Aging and the John Templeton Foundation.

So far, study results point to the value of connections outside of ourselves. People reporting high satisfaction with their social relationships sleep more soundly, are generally happier and even tend to earn more.

Happy people get even happier as they age, although so does the overall population, perhaps because we learn to avoid activities that detract from our happiness, speculated psychologist John Cacioppo, the University of Chicago's lead researcher in the project.

"We have found that the social world is a fundamental part of what it is to be human," Cacioppo said.

And those starved for companionship show the physical effects of that deprivation. The research team has found that people who report feeling more lonely also have higher blood pressure readings, as much as 30 points higher, than those who aren't lonely.

To be human is to need to connect, but not all those connections need be with humans, Cacioppo noted.

The researchers also have found that African-Americans who say they have a strong relationship with God were less likely to also report symptoms of depression. This finding was unique to the African-American participants, perhaps because religious connections tie African-Americans into patterns of meaning and social action that allow them to overcome or diminish alienation or discrimination found in other aspects of life, observed W. Clark Gilpin, a professor at the university's divinity school who has participated in the study.

While links between loneliness and blood pressure are an interesting observational finding, there still need to be more randomized controlled studies to establish direct causal links, said Dr. Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging.

The Chicago studies are just one project the NIA is funding to probe the physical benefits of social contacts, Suzman said. In Baltimore, for instance, researchers are tracking the health of seniors who volunteer in the local schools.